Wow - It's New Year Again ...

2010 fades out and 2011 sneaks in. Lots of wasted money on fireworks world-wide and untold gallons of booze  consumed in the alcoholic hope that just changing the date will make us more wealthy - well in the "West" anyway.

I'm greatly please to still be drawing breath, eating good food and have a pot to pizz in. It's also a miracle that I'm able to go abroad in the streets with little danger of being shot or bombed because I'm not wearing whatever clothes some rabid Fundamentalist thinks I should be wearing; said Fundamentalist's actions being motivated by a morbid urge to consort with 72 virgins, reach Nirvana or ensconced on the right or left hand of some chosen deity by close of day. Ah, what it is to be an unbeliever ... I leave you to choose whatever colour of belief you like ...

Trouble is, history, if consulted with an unbiased mind, tells us that all will be much the same in 2011 ...

Pass The Mylanta Please!

What a splendid day! The sun shone - for a change ...

We managed to eat far too much at lunch despite our best efforts to control our input. Given this increase in my girth I have decided to have a little nap with the intention of digesting the Christmas pudding in the shortest time.

Just to round off the gluttony, maybe a small, mint chocolate ...

Ho Ho Flaming Ho ...

It's Christmas! Strictly, that's if you're a Christian, but I'm certain in todays multi-cultural and Mammonistic societies all and sundry will be out buying baubles and trinkets they can't afford to give to those who, the rest of the year, the said givers, would be glad to snuff-out or remove at least one limb - that especially in the case of old Aunt Mildred who insists on taking her false teeth out mid-dinner. "Is she still alive?", I hear you ask ...

The receivers of said baubles and trinkets  will, as is their right and yearly habit, give one of those sickly smiles and say, "You shouldn't have bothered. It's lovely." The first sentiment being heart felt and the second having the sincerity of a politician touting for votes at an election.

JC's adopted birthday brings with it the threat of the "Traditional Dinner" which, as you all know, includes an over-supply of booze, a totally indigestible Christmas pudding, silly hats and crackers that seldom crack. This splendid fare, only cooked once a year, is a testament to tradition rather than nutrition. Thank God for antacid remedies ...

Lest you get the idea that I'm a Humbuggering Old Fart I will take the opportuntity to wish all my readers

Have A Safe and Enjoyable Christmas!

Please don't drink and drive you could run over Aunt Mildred ...

Paperwork - The Ideal Thing To Be Doing ...

OK, so we're back in our box. What's to do? Why paperwork of course! It's time to catch up with all that natty tax, pension, insurance, car registration and whatever-takes-your-fancy form filling in. What's the password for whatever is the focus of your bureaucratic attention? Who knows? I've had a nap since last year ... I'll just check the data base ... and so it goes ...

Weather wise it's balmy and idyllic - at the moment. A gross change from ice and snow just a short 15 days ago. Supermarket wise it's, I'll be polite, a bit of a drag. The UK supermarkets definitely produce withdrawal symptoms when you get re-transported ... Not to worry. Our aged bellies are full and there is the possibility that someone will change our dip-trays when it becomes necessary.

House wise, it seems too far to walk from one end of the living room to the bedroom; how do people manage who live in the American style mansion that now pass for everyday family homes in Oz? Maybe my legs are shorter than the used to be ...

Horsetraillia Again

After a total of 21 hours we are now back in our cage at B Bay. The flight from Tokyo to Sydney was excellent - JAL rules OK! Add to the 10ish hours of flying time: 1 1/2 hr local train to the airport, 3 hrs waiting after checking in, 1 hr waiting for the only coach to B Bay, 5 1/2 hrs travel to B Bay.

The weather on arrival in B Bay was perfect, just like a summers day in the UK. Next day? Cold and pouring with rain! Those holiday posters for Oz just don't tell the truth ...

First stop, yes that's right, the supermarket for some nosh. Then we were "at home" - whatever that really means ...

The weeds are crutch-high so that Gardener Sue has plenty to do ...

I've already stated editing the video so that it's time to keep an eye on my YouTube pages - I'll take my time, but some of the video so far is at least amusing - if you like snow ...

It's great to be old and fortunate ...

Tokyo In The Rain ... On Monday

Since its Monday all the museums are closed so we couldn't spend the day inside gorping at art and artifacts. In fact it was a case of having a metro-here metro-there day.

The first mistake was to assume that a large park in Akasaka would be open to the public. Firstly, its a Royal Estate not a park. Secondly, it contains the Togu Palace which is the residence of the Crown Prince, the State Guest House, the residences of Princes Akishino,  Tomoheto of Mikasa, Mikasa and Takamado. Hence, the security camers, guards and high fences - the likes of us would not be welcome ... no matter ...

However, by chance, we walked along the road next to the estate and came across the Toyokawa Inari Shrine and Temple. This was typical in that it was surrounded by the most modern skyscrapers and buildings you come to expect of any Tokyo main street. Since the shrine is dedicated to the Fox-riding God there were dozens of fox sculptures of all sizes - usually in pairs like book-ends.

The rain still poured so we metroed to the Marunouchi district of central Tokyo in search of food - not that there was much by nature of searching since nearly every skyscraper has its restaurants. We settled on The Marunouchi building and took the lift to the 36th floor to see what was on offer. We'd forgotten the time (3pm) so that most of the restaurants were closed for lunch. The view of rain-soddened Tokyo was worth the effort anyway. Down to Basement 1 ... the food court/shop was in full swing so we had an excellent lunch ... and a year's supply of salt!

More metroing and we were back at Asakusa in time for the usual ... coffee and supermarket. Thus endeth our last day in Tokyo ... this trip that is ...

Tokyo ... There Seems To Be No End ...

The day dawned sunny with a clear blue sky so we down-fleeced and set out to trawl the art and architecture. First off the rank was the Doctoral Program Final Exam Exhibition at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Part of the exhibition was in the Museum building which, in itself, is magnificent. The work shown was excellent in all respects. Some of the sculpture and paintings were brilliant in terms of size, materials and aesthetic. I've not seen anything as good as far as I can remember in any of the graduate and post-grad exhibitions I've seen elsewhere. There were some multimedia (video) pieces which, as always, left me cold.

A second exhibition of small, modern, abstract, wooden (some metal - mainly brass) sculptures (Tatazumu Kigi's work) showed how small sometimes out classes large when the aesthetic emphasizes precision and  the natural texture of the materials used.

Lunch at Mr Mac's - my God how we have fallen ... I made a mistake in the ordering and we both got half a cow in a bun and a sack full of fried spuds; the indigestion had to be felt to be appreciated ... never again ... but it was tasty ...

On to the metro to get to the area around Kagurazaka and Ushigome Kagurazaka stations. Traffic in some main streets was stopped for the day so that there was a pleasant, quiet feel when we wandered about.

The Zenkokuji Temple was not that impressive; it looks "urban", which it is, but rather like it came in kit form out of a architects temple catalogue. Quite different is the Akagijinja Shrine which is impressive in terms of it's modern architecture.

After a coffee we headed back to the metro to return to Asakusa. Time to visit the supermarket and head home to do the chores - washing clothes.

Yokohama Day Out

After a fitful night's sleep we managed to get out-and-about by 11 am to find the sun shining and a clear blue sky. Having expected a cold winter's day, we were over-fleeced and over-heated.

We left Ueno on the JR train for Yokohama which took about 1 hour. After getting a bit confused at the Yokohama JR station - it was heaving with people out on Saturday - we retraced our steps to one of the coffee shops to re-group and re-orientate. Suitably re-magnetised, we found our way to the correct  metroline which took us to the Yokohama Museum of Art where we looked at the permanent collection. Not an extensive collect, but two of the Japanese Screens were especially exquisite. The building is a sculpture in different granites. We didn't see the Degas exhibition - we've seen most of the pieces in other exhibitions over the years and we came to Japan to see Japanese things ...

Wandering in the vicinity of the museum brought us to the Landmark Tower and all the massive modern buildings around - impressive. I liked the strange twisty sculpture in the plaza. We decided not to go to the top of the tower ...

We retraced our steps again and took the metro to China Town; this is supposed to be the larges of its sort outside of China. It definitely lived up to it's reputation. The whole area was double-heaving with people! More wandering gave us ample excuse to sample the Pork Buns (dumplings) and other delectables.

A re-retrace and we were back at Yokohama station where we caught the train back to Ueno by which time, all the lights where blazing their Messages of Mammon and a chill in the air had begun to make the over-fleecing desirable. A quick coffee and a visit to the supermarket for dinner goodies rounded off the day.

It must have been a good day out because we were both knackered ...

JAL Does It Again ... But Of Couse!

We cleared security without problem; other than that I lost my glasses in the process. A short 3 hour wait and we were embarked on JL402 for the 12 hour flight to Tokyo. Four films, 2 G &Ts, 2 meals, 3 bottles of water and a small bottle of sake later, we disembarked at Narita airport. We thoroughly recommend Premium Economy - we were bumped ...

Once through immigration and customs we wandered down to the Keisei station to catch the train to Tokyo; I had a 1 hour nap. A quick stroll to the Oak and then we were booked in. The welcome we received was warm and the room as we had requested.

Next? You guessed it - the supermarket. We went on to a tempura cafe for dinner and returned to the hotel where we sank into a 12 hour sleep!

Premier Inn ... Waiting ... Waiting

We had a relatively good English dinner - steak pie, mashed spuds and 73 peas (I counted them ...) and then retired to the room for an good nights sleep. The breakfast was OK if a bit lacking in the "Continental" aspects you'd expect for an international hotel. The coffee? Hey, this is the UK so, as expected, it was terrible ...

We've got 4 hours to kill before we can check-in. We've found a comfortable seat in the cafe/bar so it's time to sip the sparkling H2O and read a novel. There are no newspapers on offer - I discount the Daily Mail and the Sun ...

Three Cheers For National Express

Decamping the Premier Motel in about -4 deg C was cool to say the least. It was literally freezing at the bus station so that the 30 min wait prevented us overheating with excitement. We left Sheffield by National Express coach on time and arrive at the Central Coach Station, Heathrow on time! The weather is bitterly cold and the frost on the trees along the way spectacular. Sheffield streets looked out of this world; the snow had hardly thawed along the side streets so that the effects of the snow fall were quite obvious. Major roads are clear and the traffic flowed. There is no way I would have liked to have driven down to Heathrow given someone else was there to do it and the fare was so little. The coach went through Coventry and amusingly passed the road where I lived when I was 5-7 years old. I had no feelings of familiarity, but it did bring some memories to mind - really disliked the school ...

We settled into the Premier Heathrow and filled up with good food which brings memories of being in the same hotel last year - sometimes it really does seem a bit of science fiction ...

We fly to Tokyo tomorrow at 7pm which means we'll hang around the hotel until 3.30pm ... that's travel Freddy Boy ...

Packing Up The Igloo

We've started loading up the reindeer for the trek across the tundra to the winter pastures in the south. That was all fine and good, but the snow has claimed the roads and reindeer are few and far between. I dashed out into the white-out to try and find one of the more intrepid taxis still plying their trade. Fortunately, I managed to wade through the snow and flag down a hackney cab (the big taxis you get in London). Even more fortunately, the driver was sympathetic to our plight and agreed to help us move our gear to the storage centre. The driver was a delightful Somali chap who couldn't have been more helpful - he even helped us to tote the bags down to the cab. It took about 10 mins to get to the store where we found that the parking area was knee-deep in snow. We lugged the bags through this into the dock area. The taxi fare was a mere 5 Brit pounds! We noticed that the taxis that were running were all driven by immigrants; too cold for the local indigenous folk ...

We walked to the post office in the city only to find it was closed - again. A further trek though the snow and ice took us to another PO which was open; we were able to arrange for our mail to be redirected. This PO is in a small shop - also open. You guessed correctly; the shop and PO was run by immigrants.

More Snow - Less Go ...

It didn't snow overnight and we've seen a few buses this morning. Hopefully the road will be kept clear by whatever traffic braves the weather. But no! It's started to snow again! We can't get to the storage facility to store our UK gear because the place is still closed ...

Fortunately we have JAL tickets that allow us to change our departure date up to 24 hours before we are due to fly out. We may have to change plans at the last minute, but we still have 4 days to agonize. Change to departure means all sorts of knock-on changes with hotels in Japan, flights to Sydney and the only, once-a-day coach to BBay. Hey-ho, it's not that difficult and keeps the mind occupied ...

Sadly, the snow means we can't get to see friends and family before we leave. Our friends at Stanage are stranded by the snow and icy roads ... again. They can use a quad-bike, but the idea of two adults and three sheepdogs on the machine is a bit Wallace and Grommet ...

The daftest thing we've heard is that the Lincoln Christmas Market has been cancelled due to the snow ... seems a bit odd when you consider the main selling image is a snowy scene with all that entails. Normally, the stalls have artificial snow on their roofs (it's not rooves as some may think). OH&S strikes again! God help us; I wonder what our forebears would think ...

Sue is off to the supermarket across the road. It's not far so we don't have to harness the Huskies; she'll just use the bog-standard snowshoes which make her walk like a penguin that has extensive hemorrhagic problems. The barrel of brandy around her neck is a little add-on just in case she gets thirsty on her trek into the white-out. Sue, "I'm just going outside." Histrionic as ever ...

Best of British - NOT!

It has been snowing most of last night and today giving about 25 cm of the stuff. Not much really when you consider how much falls in Scandinavia and those countries don't come to a total standstill! Mind you, it seems that UK divers can't get it through their heads that using chains is common sense ... they carry all the kit for driving in Europe, albeit reluctantly, but using chains in snow condition seems to be just a bit too much to comprehend. The excuse is that it only snows now and again. Last year's experience seems to be lost on everyone; as does, in my life-time, every winter that they have ever experienced. Public transport comes to a halt, trains only run infrequently and most people use the weather as an excuse to stay at home. Politicians bleat about the cost of doing anything to plan for the conditions ... then they bleat about the lost working hours and production.

I've had my rave. It'll do no good ... but ...

We put on all our winter gear and had a good walk all over town trying to find a post office that was open. We were toasty warm and the snow was crisp and even - except in the slushy gutters where some vehicles had managed to get about. We even went to the supermarket ... ee, that were fun.

If it freezes tonight walking will be deadly - ice covered roads and footpaths everywhere. Hey, it's winter - nearly.